Brown pelican By Aye’Jay Custard

Description Identification Tips: Length: 41 inches Wingspan: 90 inches Sexes similar Huge, dark bird Long bill with a pouch, dark on Atlantic/Gulf coasts; bill paler along Pacific coast, becomes season. Flies with neck tucked. Plunges from great heights into water to catch fish. Brown pelicans fly close to the water.

Range: worldwide oceans and lakes Morphology/ecology: large fish-eating birds; totipalmate feet (webs connect all four toes); bare distendible gular pouch; some capture fish by aerial diving (bobbies, pelicans) other by swimming (cormorants) Behavior: chicks are altricial (naked and blind; baby pelicans are ugly!) except for tropicbirds; some white pelicans fish cooperatively by forming a net of birds Other notes: cormorants used by people in Asia to catch fish Taxonomic notes: two familys formerly with storks (herons, ibis) have been moved here Important families: *Pelicanidae: pelicans - huge pouched beaks for fishing *Phalacrocoracidae: cormorants - catch fish swimming under water *Sulidae: boobies - dive to catch fish *Fregatidae: frigatebirds - pirates that steal food from other birds *Ardeidae: herons - long necked marsh birds *Threskiornithidae: ibis & spoonbills - marsh birds with interesting beaks *ORDER PELECANIFORMES — Full-webbed Swimmers (Pelicans and allies), herons, ibis — 9 families; 159 species

Feeding When feeding, pelicans soar in the air looking for fish near the surface of the water. When a fish is spotted, the pelican goes into a dive, plunging 30 to 60 feet bill- first into the water. The impact of hitting the water would kill an ordinary bird, but the pelican is equipped with air sacs just beneath the skin to cushion the blow.

Feeding The loose skin on the underside of the bill extends to form a scoop net with an amazing capacity of 2.5 gallons. The pelican drains the water from its pouch and tosses its head back to swallow the fish. Their diet consists of menhaden and mullet fish. They lay 2 to 4 white eggs during breeding season, and live up to 30 years or more. Young pelicans are fed for about 9 weeks. During this time, each nestling will eat about 150 pounds of fish.

Interesting facts b As recently as the early 1970s, Brown Pelican was seriously endangered.

Habitat b The Brown Pelican lives near the ground and builds its nest in weeds. It lives around the Gulf Coast and is extremely rare.

GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL b Hounded by hunters and fishermen, driven to near-extinction by chemical pollution, the brown pelican has survived a century of human abuse -- only to face another challenge from the giant Gulf of Mexico Spill threatening to devastate its marine environment.

GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL b The odd-looking seabird with a distinctive pouch beneath its foot-long bill was removed from the federal endangered species list only last November. Now its recovery could be undermined by millions of gallons of oil polluting the Gulf since an April 20 rig explosion.

GULF OF MEXICO Oil SPILL b So far, no brown pelicans are known to have died from causes related to the spill. That's likely to change if the oil fouls their nesting and feeding grounds along coastal and barrier islands, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say.

GUIL OF MEXICO OIL SPILL b Officials say they don't know the death toll from the spill, although state wildlife veterinarian James LaCour said 10 oil- soaked bird carcasses have been found in Louisiana. A total of 154 sea turtles, most identified as the endangered Kemp's ridley variety, and 12 dolphins have washed ashore in recent weeks, but it's unknown whether oil killed them.

Mating b Mate selection seems to be an annual affair carried out by the female. Some will choose the same male every year. The pair will defend the nest site against competitors. The distance between nests is typically equal to that span whereby a neighbor's outstretched bill is just out of reach when both parties are sitting on their respective clutch.

Eggs b Female pelicans typically lay two to three eggs at two to three day intervals. Incubation may last from 29 to 35 days and is performed by both sexes. The parents relieve one another every day or two and spend off duty hours feeding themselves rather than each other. The young are born naked and helpless and regurgitated foodstuffs are extracted from the cavernous maws of the parents. Floods and cold rainy weather cause great losses of eggs and young, so more than one chick being raised in a nest is rare

Maturity b At three to four weeks of age, the young can escape into the reeds or water; at ten to twelve weeks they leave the colony temporarily and begin to fly and to fish on their own. Most are sexually mature at three and four years of age.

Evolution and systematics b One of the earliest known pelicans was Pelecanus grandis from the Lower Miocene (22.5–5 million years ago). At least three other species have been identified in later deposits from that epoch.

Evolution and systematic b The question of phylogeny among the pelecaniform birds is tricky: the Phalacrocoracidae, Sulidae, Fregatidae, and Phaetheontidae share a number of morphological characteristics with pelicans. Perhaps the most significant shared characteristic is the presence of webbing connecting all four toes.

Evolution and systematic b In addition, these families exhibit a greater similarity in their social displays than would be expected by evolutionary chance alone. This grouping conflicts with DNA data that suggest that pelicans are only distantly related to these taxa and are more closely related to the shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) and the hammerhead (Scopus umbretta) than to other extant birds

Evolution and systematic b Ornithologists also disagree on the phylogenetic relationships among the seven living species. Most researchers agree, however, that the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) assumed its own evolutionary trajectory separate from the others quite early.

Why is the brown pelican endangered? b The brown pelican is endangered partly because of humans catching them on a hook and over 200 brown pelicans have bin rescued at a wharf and have bin injured last summer. b. In the late 1970's, there were no Brown Pelicans left in Louisianna due to DDT. In the early 1990's, as their numbers began to increase, Brown Pelicans were moved from the endangered species list and placed on the threatened species list.Currently, their biggest threat comes from loss of habitat

What is being done to help the brown pelican? b DDT was banned and human disturbances of nesting colonies was also banned.

Resources b bpelican.htm bpelican.htm bpelican.htm b /printouts/Brownpelicanprintout.shtml /printouts/Brownpelicanprintout.shtml /printouts/Brownpelicanprintout.shtml b tion/birdslist/pelican.html tion/birdslist/pelican.html tion/birdslist/pelican.html b Pelican.html Pelican.html Pelican.html b ml ml ml b y/usfw-list/Pelican.htm y/usfw-list/Pelican.htm y/usfw-list/Pelican.htm